Snow Day

It snowed quite a bit today. We were expecting some slushy freezing rain type stuff and got about 4-6 inches of snow. The kids got released early from school because of the forecast for freezing rain, which was a lovely surprise for them, but the still weren't expecting snow. I love when they are surprised by things as opposed to when they are expecting something. When they expect something, it rarely lives up to their expectations. Surprises by definition are not expected. Shortly after they got home it started to snow. The snow accumulated quite a bit an a few hours.

Here are a few pictures of the kids enjoying the snow.


Gemma helping Marlow build a snowman


Marlow putting on the snowman's head


Marlow started working on a snowball on our walk down to the park. She crawled along pushing it for a while until I made her stop because it was taking way too long. So she scooped it up and took it with her to finish there.

The hill at our local playground. We found many school friends and neighbors there. I love our neighborhood.


Eliot standing in the snow waiting for me to take him home -- it is almost up to his knees. He and Gemma got miserably cold after a while so I walked them home. It was not an easy walk because they both wanted to be held -- which obviously, I can't do for 3 or 4 blocks. So we stopped at a good friend's house who lives fairly close to the park and borrowed a wagon and I was able to drag them home ... I have wonderful, helpful neighbors.


Ezra sledding down the hill... about to go over the small retaining wall that served as a sort of jump.

There is still lots of snow on the ground. It is raining outside and will probably freeze over night. I guess we'll be sticking around the neighborhood again tomorrow.

Dreams and parachutes

Eliot is going to be a super dad. Here he is with a baby strapped to his back while he buckles another into her stroller. He and Gemma play house a lot. They load up purses and bags with food and stuff, and then load the babies into the strollers or baby back packs or grocery cart, and then wander around the house with them. Usually Eliot is "Dad" and Gemma is "girl." It is pretty fun to watch. The do not break character and it gets a bit confusing sometimes to hear Gemma yell "Dad!" and then hear Eliot answer, "What girl?"

Saturday morning Joseph let me sleep in, and when he finally came to wake me (at 11:30!) he had eggs and bacon and a cup of tea waiting for me downstairs. He had made egg sandwiches for himself, Eliot and Gemma. As we sat down to eat together Eliot told us about his dream from that night.

E: I dreamed I was in an airplane and I jumped out with a parachute.
Me: Wow, that's a cool dream. Were you scared?
E: No! I dream that every time.
Me: Every time? Every time you go to sleep?
E: Yeah.
Me: You dream that you parachute out of a plane every night?
E: (looks at me like I'm crazy) Yeah! But I don't land in the water.
Me: Oh? Where do you land?
E: (looks at me like I'm crazy) On the ground! BUT I wish I would land on a bear that would take me home.

..... Joseph and I cracked-up laughing. This kid comes up with the funniest stuff. It is not as hilarious to read, but just hang out with him for a little while -- he is funny.

Happy Birthday Gemma

Gemma got up and had breakfast with me before I went to work. We talked about her party we are going to have tonight and practiced holding up two fingers and saying "I'm two!"

Stitches for Marlow

In addition to "First broken bone," Marlow now holds the "First with stitches" title among her siblings. Hopefully, it will be the last, too, but I know how kids are... The broken collar bone came from falling backwards off a bench. The cut on the forehead came from running and tripping on the sidewalk... pretty ordinary stuff...

Even though I successfully superglued a cut similar in size on Eliot's head, this one looked a little rougher and was more visible, so we took her to the ER. She was extremely brave and grown up about it. There was a young woman on staff at the children's ER whose job was to comfort/distract children so they don't focus on the things such as needles being threaded through their flesh. She kept telling Marlow it wasn't going to hurt at all... I kept wanting to interject that it might, after all, hurt a little bit, but I figured I'd let her do her job...

Marlow grimaced through the first two stitches but started sobbing on the third and final one. After the doctor and her helper left, Marlow muttered, shaking her head, "She said it wasn't going to hurt..." I felt bad for not warning her.

Now she can smile.

A bit of catch-up

So, a lot has happened since Marlow turned 4 ... Eliot turned 3, Ezra turned 9, I turned 32, we celebrated Christmas (and celebrated and celebrated!), and now it is a new year ... plus there was all of the stuff that goes on between celebrating our birthdays and holidays. I don't really have a terrific excuse for not updating our blog more regularly, except that it takes time and inspiration. When I have time (rarely) I lack the inspiration (aka: I'm tired) and when I am feeling inspired, there is no time. Hopefully I will be more organized (I outlined a schedule this morning) in 2009 so that it doesn't seem like there is never enough time to post a few pictures and write a little blurb.

So here is a bunch of pictures -- highlights from what has happened since Marlow's birthday in July.


My sister Carson came to stay with us and Bailey came and stayed with Kelly. Kelly and Bailey hosted a bingo tea party that we all dressed-up for and made a special cake and other treats.


We celebrated Eliot's 3rd birthday at the neighborhood playground with a few friends. Ever since then he tells total strangers, "I turned three at the park." They then look at me, confused because they usually can't understand him, and I have to explain that he had his third birthday party at the park.


Eliot and cousin Zoe playing when we went down to visit with Joseph's family for his Grandmother's birthday.


For Fall Break we went to visit the Bollman Grandparents and enjoyed things like tractor rides around the property and lollipops on the porch.


One of our favorite events for the year was getting to go on a zipline course in NC. Ezra is zipping by in this shot while the rest of wait our turn on the platform in the trees behind him. My mom, Joseph, Ezra, Asa, Marlow, Eliot and I all did the course which had 11 different ziplines. The owners are friends of my parents and were awesome with the little kids (and the rest of us) guiding us through the course. It was SO fun and I was extremely proud of my kids for being so brave. Keith was super and held Gemma and took pictures for us.


In October we said goodbye to some neighbors who had lived across the street for only 5 months. We were sad to see them go -- they are a great family that we all enjoyed playing/hanging out with. We sent them off with a proper stick and lightsaber fight in the backyard, and a bit of food and fellowship inside with some other neighbors.


Halloween happened. We went around the neighborhood collecting candy ... the usual. The highlight for Ezra and Asa was getting to go in the haunted house that had previously been forbidden. We didn't want them to have nightmares ... turns out, they said it wasn't that scary (yeah, if you wait until you are older).


Joseph's sister Ruth got married. Marlow and Eliot were flower-girl and ring-boy (as Marlow said). It was a lovely wedding and we were so happy to be a part of the celebration ... AND the kids now have another uncle :) Uncle Ed.


We celebrated Ezra's 9th birthday Indiana Jones style. He and his friends were given Marion's diary full of clues to lead them to Marion, who had been captured, and all of the gifts which had been stolen.


Next thing you know it is Christmas. We cut our own tree again (it was a big one). I guess Gemma had already gone to bed when we took this picture.


So here is Gemma looking adorable in her pjs.


A shot of my mom with 8 of the 11 kids in my family.
l to r: Barbara, Kelly, Bailey, Amy, Katie, Michelle, Marley, Carson & Grant
Our pre-Christmas visitors included: my sister Katie and her two boys, my sister Michelle and her two boys, my parents and three youngest sisters and my brother Grant. It was a lot of kids and a lot of fun. We missed my brother Jeremy and his wife Michelle and their girls and my sister Jamie and husband Luke and my brother Charles.

Christmas morning


After Christmas we traveled to visit Joseph's family in sunny Georgia, where you can run around outside barefoot in December. All of his sibilngs were there and cousins for the kids to play with. We spent a leisurly long weekend of playing, cooking and playing some more.


New Years Eve we celebrated with Sparklers


A few days before the big kids went back to school they demolished the gingerbread house, picking every bit of candy and icing off and eating it up. Mmmm (yuck).

Finally 4

Marlow Jane turned four. She had a party yesterday with a bunch of her little girl friends. They all dressed up as princesses and had a tea party... And they got to put sugar cubes in their tea! Mmmm... They painted stuff for a while and then were directed outside where Ezra had orchestrated a scavenger hunt. Cleverly, the final clue led them back inside to the birthday cake.

Amy and I took her shopping for some new clothes, which absolutely thrilled her. We told her a few days ago that we would be doing this, and she told me yesterday she was excited about going to the store to buy some 4-year-old clothes. I thought that was cute... and then I thought I sure hope she doesn't think we're replacing her entire wardrobe!...

I still need to find the right socket wrench so I can raise the seat on her bicycle which she insists is too low now that she is 4 years old...

At least Michael and Ruth have blogged about our China trip

Well, I keep telling people I'm going to post more about my trip to China.
But I still haven't.
But Michael and Ruth have!
Of course those of you in the family have already seen their blogs, too, but for my other two readers who don't know Michael and Ruth, here are the links to what they've posted about the our trip together...

http://michael.jofis.com/2008/05/joseph-and-ruth-in-class.html
http://michael.jofis.com/2008/05/hanging-out-with-students.html
http://michael.jofis.com/2008/05/beijing.html
http://michael.jofis.com/2008/05/hangzhou.html

http://ruthnichols.blogspot.com/2008/05/great-wall.html
http://ruthnichols.blogspot.com/2008/05/from-denver-to-la.html
http://ruthnichols.blogspot.com/2008/05/beijing.html

A glimpse of our incredible time in China so far

I just wanted to post a few pictures from our Great Wall experience. We were blessed with a "chance" encounter with a guy selling tours to a certain unnamed section of the Great Wall that is "unspoiled by tourists." We were skeptical, but decided to go for it, and we were not sorry.
First thing we saw was a sign that said in Chinese only "Closed to the public. Do not enter" Our driver drove past it and through the woods a bit then we got out and started hiking. Michael passing another sign...

We got to the wall and Michael and I said, "We're climbing to that point."
And Ruth said, "We are?"
We stopped here and ate our picnic lunch. Then we all three climbed down and up to that next point across the way.

Yes, this is awesome.

Even Ruth enjoyed the climbing... up to this peak.

Scary, huh? (yes, it's fake... I'm safely standing on a solid surface below... heh heh.)



Michael and I went a little further while Ruth stayed behind and read The Lonely Planet.

At the bottom.


At the top.

I'd love to write more, but I have to catch a taxi to the airport in 15 minutes. We're off to HangZhou. Then Shanghai. Then Suzhou. Then back to Beijing. More later...

Spring is in the air

Eliot working on his hula hooping technique

It is impossible to not be in love with the weather and all the green and flowers that are surrounding us....I suppose if you have horrible allergies this might not be your favorite weather, so not completely impossible, but I love Spring. I love the warm sun and cool breeze and kids running around trying to pop bubbles or playing soccer in the back yard.  Marlow and Eliot love their swing set, and lately they can't wait for me to let them out so they can run outside in our backyard.  I also love that it is light a bit longer, that we can play outside a bit after dinner and enjoy our evenings.  I am looking forward to summer vacation so I don't have to be so worried about getting them to bed at a decent time so they can wake up for school.  

Playing with our cousins Jack and Ian at dusk in the back yard

My sister Michelle and her family are visiting. Her husband's family lives near us and one day we went out to their house to play.  They have a gorgeous yard, beautifully landscaped and planted with lovely trees and plants.  The kids really enjoyed riding bikes and pushing things in the driveway.  It is super fun to have so many cousins to play with.

Gemma loves to practice walking.  In the distance you see Kelly with Marlow pushing Calliope in a car and  Eliot riding a trike. 

Jack, Ian, Calliope and Eliot chasing bubbles

Eliot loves being a big brother and was so proud to hold Gemma on his lap for a ride in the little car.

Gemma celebrated her first birthday recently.  

She isn't a big fan of food yet, but she gave her cake a little taste.  I completely forgot to give her a little bit of ice cream -- which I know she likes.  The bigger kids generously showed her how to open her presents and play with her new stuff.....Ok, so they kind of took over, but she is used to it and enjoyed watching.

Everyone wanted to show Gemma how to work her new Jack-in-the-Box

We gave Gemma a little Radio Flyer ride-on.  She is still a bit small for it but she likes it when her siblings push her around on it or she will push it and practice walking.

The girls helping Joseph put together her little bike

Speaking of Joseph, he and his sister Ruth went to China to visit their brother Michael.  We miss him SO much but are so happy for him to have the chance to take this trip.  Eliot gets confused (understandably, he is two) about Joseph being gone and how far away he is.  A couple of times now we have been getting ready to go somewhere and he will say, "Are we going to go have lunch with Dad?" or "We going to go see Dad at work?"   We then get to talk about how daddy is far away and how he will be back a few days and then we count the days together.  The kids have been super good for me -- and they were so excited about Mother's Day. The boys made cards at school and Ezra gave me a potted plant, but the main thing they were excited about was giving me my card and box of chocolates that Joseph had got and helped them hid in their room since he would be gone for Mother's Day.  They all trooped into my room this morning with big smiles and their hands behind their backs.  Marlow handed me my card (which was a funny one -- the best kind from a bunch of silly kids) and Ezra handed over a big box of chocolate which, of course, they were wondering when I was going to open it so they could help me eat it.  So we are hanging in there without Joseph but can't wait for him to get back -- plus we have the help of Aunt Michelle and her boys to keep us entertained and busy while he is gone.